enough
by fressamour
Summary: Sometimes there comes a moment in an abusive relationship when the abused realizes they've had enough and they can either fight or run.
1. Chapter 1

_**Description:**_The title and idea of this story was born from a similar concept one of my favorite movies starring Jennifer Lopez. In this story, there is no magic and curse. Regina's married to Leopold "Leo" White. Forced to marry him for political gain, their relationship soon turns violent not long after their wedding. Eventually Regina escapes from her abusive husband and even more abusive mother to Boston, Massachusetts where she realizes her husband and mother have sent someone after her. Regina turns to the Boston Police Department who seem to be unable to help her. But when undercover Detective Emma Swan overhears Regina's conversation with her boss, she thinks it may be the case she needs to finally get promoted out of the Vice squad. Emma takes Regina in under her own protection and from there they work together to keep Regina safe.

_**Main Characters:**_  
**Regina Mills**: Chief Administrative Officer of Storybrooke and wife to Leo White.  
**Emma Swan**: Boston Police Department Detective and mother of Henry Swan  
**Henry Swan**: Student and son of Emma Swan  
**Cora Mills**: Overbearing and abusive mother of Regina Mills. Former wife of previous Mayor of Storybrooke.  
**Leo White**: Mayor of Storybrooke and overbearing and abusive husband of Regina Mills.

_**Supporting Characters: **_  
**Mary-Margaret Blanchard**: Henry's school Principal and Regina's former horse-riding student. Emma's friend.  
**Kathryn Nolan**: Regina's best friend and legal advisor.  
**Ruby Lucas**: Storybrooke's gossip.  
**Sydney Glass**: Thought to be stalking Regina. Seemingly hired by Leo White.  
**Killian Jones**: Private Investigator following Regina. Hired by Cora Mills.  
**David Nolan**: Kathryn's soon-to-be ex-husband and dating Mary-Margaret.  
**Mr. Gold**: Candidate for upcoming Mayoral election.

_**Relationships: **_  
**Regina/Emma**: romantic  
**Emma/Mary-Margaret**: friendly (obviously)  
**Emma/Henry**: familial  
**Regina/Henry**: friendly  
**Regina/Kathryn**: friendly  
**Killian/Cora**: undetermined  
**Mr. Gold/Regina**: undetermined  
**Regina/Mary-Margaret**: unfriendly

**_Warning:_** This story is rated M (Mature) for (emotional, mental, physical, and verbal) Abuse, Rape, and consenting sex between two adult women. Please don't read if there is a chance you will be triggered or this isn't your cup of tea. Otherwise, sit down with a cup of tea and enjoy reading. Also this is my first (published) OUaT fanfic so please be kind.

* * *

_By the hair, long and silky, he dragged her across the wooden floor of the foyer. All that could be heard was the sound of his yelling and her body being forcefully pulled against her will until she was lying in front of the fireplace with an aching head and bloody knees._

_ He walked around her quickly and knelt before her, his hands were on her skin and his fingers were cold from being wrapped around the tumbler full of ice and whiskey. His breath in her face made her stomach roll and she'd learned to stop protesting years ago._

_He wanted her and she just laid there, ready to give him what he wanted._

_She felt him between her thighs but she clenched her jaw to keep from crying out._

_She looked up at the ceiling, watched as the chandelier swayed threateningly above them, and for once she wouldn't mind if it fell and crushed them both. In her head she counted to a hundred because that's how long it usually took._

_His voice was gruff in her ear and hoarse from screaming at her for the last hour. He whispered soft apologies to be better and get help and she learned to stop believing him long ago._

_He shoved her nightgown up to her hips and she scratched at the floor to give her hands something to do instead of fighting back. God, she wanted to fight back._

_"Regina," he moaned in her ear. "You're so wet."_

_She wasn't. And it hurt. A hot tear stroked her cheek when he began moving his hips._

_"You smell so good," he breathed in her ear. Her stomach rolled violently. "Tell me you love me," he pleaded._

_ Times like these truly made her hate him. His love for her filled her with self-loathing and disgust. He could only tell her how beautiful she was when she made him happy. But when she didn't, he made sure she knew no one could love her as much as him. He made sure she was aware she wasn't deserving of anyone's love but his._

_And deep down she knew he was wrong. But he wanted her to love him and she just wanted to make him happy._

_"I love you," she whispered around a sob she thought she could keep in._

_He pulled back from the curve of her neck and looked into her brown eyes. He wiped her tears away and whispered another promise he would break in the morning._

_"I'll get better," he said. "I won't hurt you anymore. This is the last time."_

_For a moment she allowed herself to pretend he meant it. Or maybe he did mean it but in the morning feelings changed and he was back to the bottle and hitting her. _

_For a minute, while he continued using her body, she allowed herself to play into the fantasy he could get help and she could forgive him and they could love each other._

_She felt him inside of her and she knew she couldn't forgive him for this. Even if she wanted to. Because it wouldn't be the last time._

* * *

The streets of Boston are littered with dead leaves falling from their trees and people nearly dead on their feet. Regina takes a moment in her vintage Mercedes. The car was a gift from her father. There was always something distinctively familiar about it that eased her. The car still carried an acute aroma of her father's cologne. It was distinct and in a few years the smell would be nonexistent and faded but she could still smell it on the leather seats as if he were in the car with her right now.

But there is something familiar and disturbingly comfortable about feeling stranded in a place she's unacquainted with.

Her fingers glide against the side of the seat where a seam of the thread keeping the leather seat together had been dangling loosely for the last couple of months. She wraps it around her index finger and for a moment she thinks she might be able to do this.

One more minute, Regina tells herself as she inhales the final scent of her father and feels the car's warmth entangle her in memories. It was idiotic to be so attached to a car, she knew it, but it was the last thing she had of her father aside from the necklace he'd given her as a little girl. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to bring that in her haste to leave Storybrooke.

She feels bare to the world now and she knows the moment she steps out of that car she's not going to feel any better.

"One more minute," she tells herself again as she takes the keys out of the ignition. A few leaves have fallen on the car in the time since she parked there. She takes a deep breath and for the first time in years it doesn't feel like she's submerged beneath water. She can finally breathe.

Five years in a loveless marriage wore her down and drowned her.

Outside of the Mercedes is cold and wet. Having forgotten a lot of things back in Storybrooke, including an umbrella, Regina just gathers her bag out of the trunk and takes one more long glance at her inherited car. She presses the lock button and the lights flash, signaling the doors have been successfully locked. Of course, she checks it anyway.

It reminds her of the day her father had given it to her. She was riding at the stables on her nineteenth birthday and he'd only gotten the car four years before. But they'd spent a lot of time in it, as it was the only place in Storybrooke she felt completely safe from her mother.

Though he wasn't oblivious to Cora's abuse, he barely lifted a finger to help her, but he wasn't heartless. Her father would take her out of town, for what he'd tell Cora were business trips, and they would drive to the closest neighboring town to have ice cream and talk about everything but what her mother did to her in their house.

It's how the car accumulated her father's smell so quickly, she believes. But how it clung his memory after all these years was a mystery to her.

She palms the hood of the car in the same affectionate way she had her father the day he died. She'd touched his face and tried to imagine a world without him, a future he didn't exist in, and it overwhelmed her. Just as much as leaving her car now does now.

Regina finally walks away, deserting her black Mercedes once and for all.

She walks with confidence down a street unfamiliar to her and hidden behind her sunglasses and a large red Birkin bag that resembles her red dress and red Dereon gator straps. Her black coat shields her shoulders from the rain but she still feels cold.

When she dressed for this trip she was unsuspecting of the weather, assuming it would cooperate with her schedule. The rain pours down over her, extinguishing all of the dignity she had remaining when she left Storybrooke.

She looks up recognizes a sign that indicates her hotel is right around the corner so her feet quicken in pace. Coming around the corner, Regina's body crashes into another's and her bag, along with its contents, falls to the ground and spill out.

"Shit, I'm sorry." A breathless blonde woman apologizes quickly. She bends over to pick up the mess on the ground but her hand is slapped away.

The brunette was quick to assemble all of her items. "Watch where you're going," she hisses as she tries to shelter her fallen clothes from the rain.

Out of breath, the woman steps away a little taken aback. "Hey, I said I was sorry, alright? Maybe if you didn't have those ridiculous sunglasses on, you could see that it's fucking raining and slippery out here."

Regina's head snaps up and she scowls at the other woman but her glasses are so dark it goes unseen. "Just carry about your business. Clearly you were in a big hurry." She stands again and shoulders the bag, closer to her this time.

The blonde blows a rebellious strand of hair out of her face and it lands over her ear. She looks annoyed with her hands on her hips. She notices Regina's trembling, either from having been assaulted by her or from the freezing rain, the blonde isn't sure.

"You okay, lady?" she asks as she crosses her hands over her chest.

"I'm fine," Regina bites out a little too quickly. "Whether I am or not is completely irrelevant to you. Besides, it's obvious you have more important things to be worrying about." She gestures to the other woman's attire. Thick grey sweats and a black sweatshirt blotted by the rain look far baggier on the woman's body than they probably are. The blonde looks down at her outfit but shrugs, finding nothing wrong with it.

"What's that supposed to mean?" not actually insulted but unquestionably aggravated, the woman's hands go right back to her hips where they look far more intimidating.

"Well clearly you are homeless. Are you not?"

"No I'm not fucking homeless. I was on a jog." She rolls her eyes, taking her headphones out of her ears.

"Could have fooled me," Regina shrugs. "However, as interested as I am in your life, I have a hotel to check into. So I'll be on my way." She doesn't wait for a response before simply side-stepping the other woman and continuing her path to the less than glitzy hotel. Behind her she hears the other woman mumble something like "unbelievable" but it doesn't stop her.

* * *

The hotel room is small. And that's simply because it was designed for one singular occupant. Regina stands in front of the en suite's bathroom mirror with wet hair barely touching her shoulders. With the bag on the bathroom counter, she begins removing her accessories from her body. Something about it feels acquainted. She remembers, rather violently, the last time she'd done this…in her own home.

She remembers being powerfully pressed into the counter and mirror and feeling powerless. The memory feels reserved like it happened more than twenty-four hours ago but it did happen twenty-four hours ago and it makes her sick to her stomach.

First she removes the wedding ring. She drops it in the bottom of her bag and hopes she doesn't have to see it again. She contemplates pawning it but tucks the thought aside for later. Then she removes the watch he gave her two months ago as an apology. She'd accepted it. Only having felt pressured and obligated because it was a nice gesture. Taking her out to dinner and buying her an expensive gift and apologizing profusely through their 'lovemaking' and kissing the marks he made on her body.

He made her out to be coldhearted if she didn't accept his apologies.

That memory too makes her stomach coil into knots.

Next are the earrings he gave her for Christmas when her mother had come to visit. They needed to look happy. He had his hand around her throat not even five minutes after her mother had left that night because she didn't look happy enough. Cora had asked if she'd been feeling sick all night. _She didn't look well. _

Finally she unzips the dress she bought herself but she was wearing it yesterday morning when he came home angry that she'd held a department meeting without his knowledge.

_"You're after my job," he said to her as he held her pressed to their bedroom door by the neck. His fingers were thick on her skin. "This town would never vote you as Mayor. I don't care how much better you think you are than me." _

She coughed and rubbed her bruised neck at the memory.

_"I don't want your job, Leo." She said, less threatened by his violence as she'd ever been. She remembered reading an article about some women eventually coming to a breaking point in their abusive marriage where they either gain the courage to fight back or run. _

_Regina wanted to fight back. And she had. _

But, as she moisturizes her bruised eyes, she realizes she should have run to begin with. She couldn't fight a man. Fighting women was different and she'd learned that the hard way.

_"Run, dearie." Gold said to her the first time he'd seen her bruises after her sunglasses had been knocked off her face by a group of running kids in the park. They'd been taking a walk and discussing the town's debt to him. More importantly her husband's debt. _

_"I fell," she lied. _

_He looked at her in disbelief but he masked it well and shrugged and never said anything about it again. _

_Not until three months later when he dropped a large bag on her desk. "Sprain your wrist, Dearie?"_

_"Riding accident," she lied again. But everyone in town knew Regina hadn't been riding since her father had died. _

_"Run." Gold pushed the bag closer to her. _

_Regina leaned over her desk and peeked at the bag's contents. Her stomach rolled at the dozens of hundred dollar bills tied together like bricks. "This is wildly inappropriate, Mr. Gold."_

_He nodded once. "Run." He said again before limping away, leaving the money with her. _

_Regina returned it late one night when Leo was away for business. "I can't leave him," she'd said._

She'd found comfort in admitting the truth for once. She didn't have to reveal her marriage to him, he saw it. Gold had always been a mysteriously distant man. Yet always insightful and aware of what was happening in everyone's life.

He made a habit to stay out of everyone's business unless it benefitted him somehow. She knew he was planning to run for Mayor next election and he'd bullied enough citizens into voting for him but not all of them and he needed a good enough scandal to put the current Mayor out of a job.

But walking away from that money had been surprisingly difficult for her. It was the promise of a new a life. A simpler one. Without Leo and without her mother. It was hope and she'd returned it because she was afraid.

Afraid of so many things.

Regina gazes at the bruised skin on her stomach and thighs. She shouldn't have been afraid to leave him. She should have run.

* * *

_**A/N**_: Do I have to say reviews would be nice? Well, I'll say it. Please let me know if this story is worth continuing.


	2. Chapter 2

_The sound of wailing babies and five o'clock traffic drowned out her voice. The smell of smoke made her stomach trundle aggressively and she wrapped her arms around her swollen belly._

_"I can't do this," he said disgracefully with his head hung below his broad shoulders. "I thought I could but I can't."_

_"What am I supposed to do?" she asked, already knowing he was without an answer. "You can't just leave me with this baby."_

_He looked at her from below his eyelashes with a look that told her that was exactly what he was doing. "I love you Emma." He whispered. "But I'm not ready to be a father."_

_She tasted bitterness in her throat but didn't say anything. She just watched as he watched her, studying him. It wasn't a surprise._

_He'd never really committed to her in the first place, even after they'd eloped. The wedding was quick and they hadn't even had time to write their vows. Only promising each other the same traditional things as most other couples._

_Through sickness and in health._

_For rich or for poor. She laughed internally at that._

_"I can send you a few checks every now and then," he promised without any real commitment. She knew better than to believe him. Neal wasn't very good at keeping his promises. "We can figure something out. I don't want you to take care of the baby alone."_

_"Then don't leave." She said simply, not bothering to hide her disappointment. A trait Neal once had admitted loving about her. She wasn't like other girls. Other girls confessed when they were upset about something but Emma kept it in._

_It was something that allowed him to walk all over her._

_"I can't do this." He repeated. "I'm not ready for this kind of commitment."_

_The cheap ring he put on her finger burned her skin and she pulled it off. "Like marrying me?"_

_She laughed at the hilarity of it all. She should have known he would run. It was what they were both good at. The only thing they had in common aside from biological parents that didn't want them._

_She felt uncomfortable tears in her eyes but she would be damned if she let Neal see them._

_Before he could respond she threw the ring at him but it bounced of him quickly and landed somewhere that sent him scrambling to the floor for it. She had no doubt he would pawn it for money that she wouldn't see a dime of._

_"I hate you." She said with such sincerity it stunned them both and he physically moved away from her as her hands instantaneously went to her stomach to protect her baby from those words, almost covering his ears. "I fucking hate you Neal Cassidy."_

_He looked at her apologetically before picking the ring up and leaving quietly. _

_A crying Emma watched from the third floor of their project apartment, holding her stomach benevolently, as her deadbeat husband left her to raise a child on her own. He walked past the yellow bug and deep inside her she believed for a moment he was still a decent enough man to leave her with a car._

_But as she felt her baby kick she remembered he was leaving her and he was the man she fell in love with. When there was no promise of commitment and they weren't expecting a child to take care of. When their relationship wasn't heavy and bills weren't past due every other week. When they could run together._

_But now she was alone. She couldn't afford to run anymore. She had a child to stay for. _

* * *

Emma Swan is surprisingly one of Boston's finest undercover Detectives. Unofficially declared one of the best of course, but as she wipes her spilled coffee off her crisp white shirt she doesn't feel like she's the best at anything unless being clumsy now counts as a talent.

You wouldn't really know it unless you saw her on a good day when she's already had her coffee before work and isn't a zombie on her feet.

The phone on her desk rings incessantly and she effortlessly tunes it out as she licks the only napkin she has and presses it to her shirt again, scrubbing at it until she can't remember if it was originally brown or if it was white when she started using it.

When she gets annoyed glances from the other Detectives she sighs exasperatedly but pulls the phone to her ear. "Detective Swan," she grumbles while unbuttoning the stained shirt.

Her fingers freeze in their haste and she grips the phone in her hand. "He did _what?!_" Out of her seat in seconds, Emma's out of her shirt and left standing in her signature white tank top and jeans. "I'll be there in fifteen minutes." She slams the phone down on the base and grabs her holster from her desk.

"Swan!" a voice booms from the office fifteen feet away from her.

With her foot almost out the door, Emma turns like a deer in the headlights and begins slowly toward the voice with small, hesitant steps toward it. "Yes, Lieutenant?" she rounds the corner into the small closet-like office.

"It's been two weeks and I still don't have your report from the fiasco at club Manon." He says without looking away from his desktop.

"Uh, I've been busy…" She rubs the back of her neck. "You know, with Hyde Park."

Lieutenant Davis is a large but muscularly built man with grey hair and never seems to wear a blazer with his suits. His shirts are always rolled to the elbows like he's just fished elbow deep in a toilet for his cell phone and he always looks tired.

For as long as Emma has been a Detective, he's always had the same pair of dark circles under his eyes inches away from a beard that hides his square jaw and a scar from his military days.

"That's not an answer." Davis looks at her.

"You didn't form it as a question," she says in her traditional charming smart-ass way. "I'll have it to you by the end of the day."

"Why not now?"

She bites her bottom lip for a moment before wringing her hands and sighing. "I have to do something,"

With skepticism Davis eyes her with interest and asks, "What's so important you can't write me a report that's been due for two weeks?"

Emma's head drops shamefully. "My kid got into a fight at school."

"For what?" Davis leans back into his chair like he's just sat down for a good boxing match.

"I don't know," she shrugs. "I was on my way over there to find out."

He looks sympathetic but obviously not fond of her bailing, but fortunately he nods once and allows her to leave. "I want you back here in an hour."

"You got it, boss." She says as she turns on her heel and leaves the bullpen before he can change his mind.

* * *

Henry's sitting in the chair outside the Principal's office with a bleeding lip and a swollen cheek. Emma wants to be pissed at him for fighting in the first place but he looks so helpless and hurt that first she checks his face for any other contusions.

It takes Henry by surprise when suddenly his mother's hands are on his face. "What are you doing here?" he pushes her hands away.

"They called me," she explains while continuing her assessment. "What happened?"

He rolls his eyes and pulls away from her.

He should have known they would call her.

Emma's told at age ten, a kiss on the cuts and bruises doesn't make the pain go away anymore. And they no longer want mommy to hold them. They just want don't want to look like a baby around the rest of their peers.

He pulls his face out of her grasp. "Stop it," he hisses. "They're watching."

"Who-," her eyes follow his glare and sees identical twin boys that look older than ten across from them. They're wearing their baseball caps backwards and it takes a lot of effort not to laugh at them.

But what she really notices is the way they're glaring at Henry like he's the most vexatious thing to walk the earth.

"What's their problem?" Emma asks her son out the side of her mouth like she's too afraid to make a sudden movement.

"They're assholes." He explains simply.

"Henry!" She glares at him for his language.

"You say it all the time!" He defends with a shrug, not even bothering to apologize.

It's a solid reason but she still glares at him in a chastising manner before giving up the charade and just looking at him like she's glad he's okay. "So what really happened?" she says when she realizes there's not much wrong with him.

"They wanted my lunch money." He explicates almost inaudibly, shamefully, as his eyes fall to his hands in his lap. They're still shaking and a little bloody.

Emma glances across the room at the boys again and has no doubt her son got them both square in the nose. Her chest swells with pride but quickly deflates when the school's vice Principal walks out of her office.

"Mrs. Swan?" the young brunette woman asks hesitantly. Emma grimaces.

"Just Ms." She corrects as she stands up to shake the woman's hand. "Haven't been a Mrs. For about ten years."

"In my office please," the woman says politely. "I'd like Henry to stay here for a moment."

Suddenly Henry's spine is painfully straight and he sends his mother a pleading look, and she distinguishes it instantly. He's scared. Of those boys. She sends a scowl to the intimidating boys across the room.

"It's okay," she tells him with a soft, reassuring smile. "I'll be right in here and if they try anything I'll arrest them." She's not sure she really can. She's never had to arrest someone younger than sixteen but there's nothing she wouldn't do to keep her son safe.

Not absolutely convinced but enough to put on a brave face, Henry falls back into his seat and glares at the boys across from him as almost daringly as if he's being protected by the Secret Service.

"So what's the punishment?" Emma asks as they enter the warm office. She glances at the desk and notices the rectangular block of wood with her named carved into it as if it'd been done with expert hands next to the desktop monitor.

_Mary-Margaret Blanchard._

"I've spoken with Henry and the other boys," Ms. Blanchard says as she sits back down in her seat. She gestures for Emma to sit as well but the Detective just waves her off and stands in the same menacing stance she's adopted since she saw Superman for the first time as a kid. With her chest squared and her hands on her hips.

"He claims the boys were bullying him." Ms. Blanchard continues.

"Claims?" one of Emma's brows quirk at the Principal's imprecise doubt.

"Well, Eric and Sean have claimed that Henry's been teasing them about their parents' divorce." She explains tentatively, feeling trivial compared to Emma. "However, I have had complaints about the Henderson boys since the start of the year so I believe Henry. I just have to take their side into account as well."

Emma rolls her eyes. "Henry wouldn't tease them about something like that. Me and his father split. If anything he'd know what they're going through and try to empathize with them."

Ms. Blanchard nods thoughtfully. "I understand. But still,"

"Listen," Emma sits down across from the other woman hastily, almost petulantly. "My kid isn't violent. He doesn't fight. Come fight or flight, he takes after his father. I didn't know he was being bullied and we're just lucky he didn't steal one of my guns."

Mary Margaret glances at the other woman's waist and notices a gun strapped to it and a badge.

"Me and that kid are going to have some words but this isn't Henry. He doesn't usually fight. I don't know what they said or did to him for this to happen but whatever it was, you can bet your ass it was big. So how about we sweep this under the carpet? A week of detention for them all and I can promise you it won't be happening again. Because if it does, I'm opening an investigation on this damn school as to why they're letting little boys bully each other."

Mary Margaret stares at her, openly agape, and part of her should feel threatened. But she doesn't. She feels awe-struck at the other woman's ferocity. "I understand, Ms. Swan. We can sweep this under the carpet. One week of detention for them all."

"Great," Emma agrees with an enthusiastic nod. "I have to get back to work. Is he suspended for the day or what?"

"I think in school suspension will be as useful. I wouldn't want you to have to call a sitter."

The Detective looks at the Principal gratefully. "Thanks," her demeanor dilutes from intimidating to just exhausted. She glances at her watch and quickly exits the office.

Emma crouches down in front of Henry and he still looks like the small baby boy she took home from the hospital. "Henry," she says as the office door opens and quietly exits the brunette Principal. She walks across the room to the two boys.

The Detective refocuses on her son. "Look I don't know what happened and I don't have a lot of time to talk about it. So you have the rest of the day to come up with a good enough reason for fighting."

He looks at her from beneath his lashes in the same way his father used to look at her and makes her heart drop.

"But secretly," she leans in and whispers. "I'm proud that you were brave enough to fight those two boys." She smiles proudly at her son and one breaks out onto his face as well. He hugs her.

"Good job, kid." She says into his ear. Henry squeezes her tighter and for a moment she forgets she's rushing to get back to work. All that matters is the feel of her son's arms wrapped around her so tightly she can barely breathe.

She remembers, and basks in, the feeling of being needed by someone. _Loved_.

* * *

_**A/N**_: Wow, you guys I am in awe at the feedback. More than I expected. I know it's not as good as all those other stories so I'm just glad you took the time to read it anyway. I don't use betas (problem with critique) so sometimes I'll correct what mistakes I make. Of course I try my best to proofread them but without the use of fresh eyes somethings go unnoticed and but at least an hour after it's been published the mistakes will be corrected. Anyways, I'm thinking each chapter is going to start with an italic flashback. I just want to express my gratitude and hope you guys continue to encourage me. Help me to please you :)


	3. Chapter 3

_His fingers were entangled in her hair the day before she finally cut it to its shoulder length. While his fingers were around her throat and his nose was pressed to the back of her neck, he told her that he loved her hair._

_The smell of it. The feel of it. The way it fell around her shoulders and resembled her dark chocolate brown eyes._

_Then he used her hair as power to pull her closer to him. She felt him penetrating her but she couldn't feel pleasure or pain at this point. It just felt like he was touching her now._

_He released inside of her and held her close for a minute before pushing her away._

_"Don't burn dessert." He threatened as he buckled his pants and rejoined their neighbors in the foyer where they all sat talking animatedly in front of the roaring fire with tumblers of red wine._

_Regina took a moment to pull herself together in the bathroom just across from the kitchen. She quickly crossed the arc threshold that led into the foyer without being noticed._

_She locked the door behind herself and turned the faucet on; Regina sat on the edge of the tub with her face buried in her hands, sobbing as quietly enough not to be heard over the running tap._

_"Regina?" Kathryn softly knocked on the door twice. "Are you in there?"_

_The brunette clenched her jaw for a moment, summoning enough courage to pull herself together before standing and adjusting her dress. She primped her hair in the mirror to appear somewhat put together._

_"Just a second," she called and her voice sounded unfamiliar even to her. She cleared her throat, knowing arousing any suspicion could be more harmful than helpful to her._

_"Honey, are you okay?" her friend's voice carried through the wooden door and she could sense the blonde's worry. It made her bones ache._

_"I'm fine," she said scrubbing the smell of him off her hands until her hands turned red. "I just feel a little under the weather." She lied smoothly._

_"Let me have a look at you." There were times Regina wondered why Kathryn had been in a childless marriage with David. She considered her friend simply just didn't want children or perhaps David couldn't have them. After a pregnancy scare in high school, she was sure Kathryn could conceive. The problem had to be David._

_It was always David, she thought maliciously._

_Once she was satisfied, Regina opened the door to a stricken with worry Kathryn. Her friend's hand was on her forehead immediately._

_"You have a fever." She frowned and pulled Regina out of the bathroom. "Perhaps we all should go home."_

_"No, no." Regina pulled away and walked to the oven. "Stay for dessert. I'm fine. I'll just have Leo run out to the pharmacy tonight."_

_The Lawyer watched as Regina pulled out a delicious looking apple turnover but she still wasn't convinced they should stay. "Are you sure?" she eyed her friend skeptically._

_Worried that Kathryn might bring this idea to her husband and the rest of their friends, Regina quickly brightened up as if she weren't just crying in her own bathroom. "I'm certain." She nodded and plastered an overzealous smile that displayed nearly all of her teeth._

_Regina and her closest friend rejoined the rest of her dinner guests and her husband. Kathryn held a stack of small dessert plates and Regina carried the turnover._

_She placed it on the coffee table with a fake smile that only Leo was suspicious of. He eyed her curiously before turning his attention to the Mayor of one of their neighboring towns._

_"Mr. Whitwicky," he resumed a previous conversation from before. "I believe we can pool in our resources and help both of our towns with this awful homeless epidemic polluting both of our towns."_

_Regina divided the turnover and passed out a slice for each guest._

_"Aren't you going to eat?" Kathryn whispered out the side of her mouth from behind her wineglass when Regina joined her on the couch. "You barely touched your dinner."_

_"As I said," the brunette whispered back. "I'm just feeling under the weather."_

_Her friend must have believed the excuse because she simply shrugged and joined conversation with her husband._

_Regina was left alone while everyone discussed business plans. David was interested in opening another branch for his shelter in Kent, the town next to them. He discussed the possibility with the Mayor, taking his attention away from her husband._

_Seemingly unaffected, Leo smiled at his wife happily. "I love you," he mouthed to her as if he hadn't just assaulted her ten minutes earlier in the kitchen._

_"I love you too." She lied. It was as easy as breathing now._

* * *

It's her first time outside of the hotel in just a week and she's mostly healed from her last day in Storybrooke with her husband.

Now as she sips a cup of coffee that's expertly brewed, she considers, Regina thinks that maybe she shouldn't have left. She could have sought help in Storybrooke.

Kathryn, now thinking about her friend she remembers she promised to call her when she found somewhere safe, would have fought for her marriage to be over. They could have gone public with the divorce, and all the reasons behind it, and she could have gone against Gold in the Mayoral election.

It's not that she's afraid of the repercussions for leaving; it's that settling in a new place with barely any experience in politics (aside from what her mother has been raising her for her entire childhood) Regina realizes she doesn't have a lot of options.

She went to college at Columbia in New York and it had been the most liberating time of her life. Mostly because she knew when she returned all of her friendships were to be ended and her relationship with Daniel was to be discontinued.

She knew when she returned home from college that she were to be married. But, had she known the suitor her mother had decided for her? No, she'd had no clue. If she had, she surely wouldn't have come home. If she'd known what lay ahead for her, she would have stayed in New York.

If she'd been aware of the years of abuse and borderline torture awaiting her, she would have found a career teaching horseback riding in a place her mother didn't even know existed.

Regina brings the hot cup of coffee to her lips and watches the downpour of heavy rain outside the window. She would have never agreed to marry Leo if she'd known what was in store for her.

But, she thinks for a moment, it wasn't all bad. The abuse wasn't always daily. It began with her being caught flirting with another man. Which, she supposes, could make any man angry enough to lose control of his actions.

It began with verbal abuse just a few months before their wedding; Leo had been running for Mayor once again. And of course, Gold had been running against him.

_"I hear you're undecided," Regina said to Deputy Graham as she sat on his desk. Legs crossed in the only enticing way she knew how. "What could possibly have you doubting my fiancé?"_

_Graham shrugged, barely noticing the way she sat poised in a way that strikes fear and intimidation into the hearts of most men and women but also troubling seduced them to no end._

_He dropped his holster next to her on the desk. "Don't get me wrong, your fiancé is a very nice guy."_

_She rolled her eyes but he didn't see._

_"I just think he may not be as interested as previous Mayors in what's best for this town." He looked at her apologetically._

_A twinge of pain shot through her chest at the thought of her late father but she ignored it. "Deputy,"_

_"Regina," He insisted, quietly. "It's me. Graham. You called me names up until high school then wouldn't let me kiss you unless I won my football games and dedicated my winning touchdown to you. We dated until college, Regina."_

_Her face fell to something resembling regret and misery for a moment at the memories but she quickly gathered herself and smirked. "I wouldn't consider what we had a relationship, Graham. After all you were too poor to take me out to dinner but you always could afford condoms."_

_"What I'm saying is I don't know what happened to you at college but the Regina I knew would be running against Mayor White not sexualizing herself to get him reelected. You could be as good as your dad, Regina. Hell, you would probably be better than him, with all due respect."_

_Something about what he said made her feel more confidence in herself than she had since returning home. He thought she could be better at caring for the town than Leo. He _believed_ in her._

_Graham stood next to her, palms down on his desk, and invaded her space._

_Or maybe her thoughts drew him into it and she leaned closer to him. "Do you really think I should be running?" she whispered._

_He smiled shyly but didn't pull away. "I do."_

_By the door, something heavy dropped on the floor and both of them pulled away quickly. Regina turned to the noise and saw said fiancé standing with a bag from Granny's and a look of betrayal on her face._

_"Leo," she whispered almost breathlessly._

_But he quickly left the station and in his haste, he kicked the bag over and out spilled Regina's favorite salad from the diner. She glanced at Graham and he looked just as shocked and guilty as her. Like a deer in the headlights._

_His face softened to something apologetic and she hurried after her fiancé._

_"Leo!" She called when she left the building. He was sitting in his car across the street. She looked both ways for traffic then crossed it and got into the small car._

_In the passenger seat, she turned to him to explain but in his eyes she saw collected tears he wouldn't let fall and she fell short of an excuse. He looked broken and she felt guilt swell inside her chest. She yearned to make it better, to make understand she would never do anything to hurt him. The flirting…it was a ruse. She knew Graham still had a soft spot for her in his heart. She wanted to use him for it. She would never dare cheat._

_Regina Mills was a lot of things, selfish, proud, mistrustful, conniving, meticulous, manipulative, but she was not a cheater. She promised to marry him and love him and deep down she knew it was hard to do but she would do it. Out of respect. Regina was true to her word. _

_"I should have known," he said in the silence. "He's younger and you dated him for three years. I thought you were over him after…"_

_Daniel, she finished in thought. She _was_ over Graham._

_"Your mother never warned me he might still be a problem. Is he a problem, Regina?" he looked at her with storm green eyes and she numbly shook her head in the negative. Her heart was beating erratically in her chest. She could barely hear him over her quick pulse._

_"He said something to me." She tried to explain. "He compared me to my father and it was an unexpected compliment."_

_Leo nodded in understanding then started the car._

_They drove in silence back to the Mayoral Manor. Regina entered the house behind him quietly clutching her purse in her hands._

_He turned around suddenly and she lifted her gaze from the floor to him. "He doesn't still love you," Leo said with a hand on her wrist to keep her in place._

_"You've changed. You're not the same Regina that used to love him out of pity. He knows you're a shark and you'd do anything for me, including seduce him like some cheap political whore."_

_"I'm not a whore," she said with defiance.__She felt like a girl again, when her mother caught her kissing Graham in her bedroom. She'd dragged Regina down the stairs and laid her before her father. Defiled and reduced to her body._

* * *

_"Whore," her mother had called her. "Your daughter is a whore." She'd told her father._

_He looked over his newspaper at her on the floor with pity but went back to reading. Regina, in her nightgown, exploded with tears and sobbed that she would never see Graham outside of school again._

_But the next night he'd snuck into her room again and they'd kissed again, even after she'd protested against him. Her mother didn't catch them this time and when he'd left, she felt some semblance of humanity in her. Her father snuck into her room after Graham and he promised he would talk to Cora._

_But he didn't. If he had, it'd done nothing for her._

* * *

_"You are a whore, Regina." Leo pulled at her wrist, yanking her to him until she was standing before him. She could smell a hint of alcohol on his breath. "Do I have to remind you of what you've done for me to win the first election? What your mother asked you to do for me when you were seventeen? You were still dating Graham, weren't you? Do you think he could look at you knowing what you did for me?"_

_She shook her head, shamefully._

_He continued bitterly. "He can't love you like I love you, Regina. I know everything about you and I still want to marry you. That orphan Deputy? He knows nothing about you. His ignorance is his love. But I know all the dark secrets you keep from this town and I love you."_

_His bruising hold on her wrist tightened._

_"Say it," he demanded in a whisper._

_Regina looked at him. Chin up and eyes as black as coal. "You love me."_

_"That's right, Regina. I love you." He released her, almost pushing her away as if he were disgusted with her. "I'm done with you. Go make yourself presentable for dinner. I want to fuck you in ways Deputy Graham couldn't even imagine."_

_She left quietly, yet in a hurry to get away from him._

_In the shower, she didn't cry. She felt numb. Empty._

_But that night, Leo did fuck her. And at first it felt good. But then it became about him and his pleasure and he'd forgotten she was human._

Regina's pulled out of her reverie when she sees a face that reminds her of Graham staring back at her across the street. She tenses then blinks. Regina searches the crowd of faces once more but the familiar one is gone.

Leo sent him after her.

* * *

_**A/N**_: I forgot about NaNoWriMo and so I decided to use this story. I'm looking for a Beta. Someone readily available at any time of the day. Someone not interested in telling me which direction to take my story but can give some ideas if I ask. Someone that is only interested in correcting my grammatical, punctual, and spelling errors. If that's you then PM if you're interested.

Anyways, reviews encourage me to write and I'm willing to post multiple chapters a day if I had the inspiration.


	4. Chapter 4

Henry's late for school because Emma not-so-accidentally threw her clock out her window. In her defense, the buzzing piece of crap would wake her up three hours too early and didn't even wake her up at 6 am like she'd programmed it to.

So, she threw it out the window in a fit of rage and annoyance though admittedly she was a little stressed out from work and she had to take it out on something.

She also forgot to use her cell phone as a backup thus Henry hesitantly knocking on her bedroom door and peeking his head around it.

"Mom?" he whispers because he doesn't necessarily want to go to school. Emma allows him to skip at least once every three months but after his fight last week, she hasn't been too pleased with him. And he hasn't been too excited to go to school each day with Ms. Blanchard looking at him with disappointment.

"What Henry?" she groans with her back to him on the bed. She's curled beneath the blanket with only the tips of her hair glancing from under it.

"Um, it's eight…" He steps all the way into the room now. "In the morning."

The way his mother jumps from the bed scares the crap out of him. Emma sits up immediately almost like she's being exorcised by a demon, especially after she let him watch The Exorcism of Emily Rose a few nights ago on Halloween.

Which now that he thinks of it may have been his unofficial punishment for fighting.

"Holy shit," Emma says as she crawls out of bed. "Holy shit. We're late." She's in her closet now and he stands at the door awkwardly. "What are you still doing here? Go get dressed!"

"Well," he shifts uncomfortably on his feet. "I don't have any clean underwear…"

"I forgot to do your laundry?"

He nods.

"Shit, okay just go put some pants on and we'll pick some up for you on the way to the school." She's already changing out of her shorts and shoving her legs into a pair of tight jeans.

Henry takes his time back to his room, buying himself some time.

* * *

When she's finally done getting dressed Emma hurries to the kitchen and packs his books from the kitchen table into his bag and hands it to him when he comes out of his room.

"Ready?" she asks, already expecting him to be anyway. He nods and she all but pushes him out the door, shouldering her own bag.

On their way to Henry's school, Emma stops at a corner store and he changes in the restroom while she runs next door to the McDonald's and picks him up some breakfast.

Not the healthiest choice but oh well, she shrugs.

Henry's waiting patiently, too patiently for her liking, in the car and she hands him the paper bag. "Just go straight to class and have your teacher call me at lunch or something, alright?"

He agrees but it's jumbled as he chews on his McMuffin. "Mom?" he says as she's backing out of the parking lot.

"Yeah, Henry?" Emma answers without really looking away from the road.

"Are you still mad at me about the fight?"

She glances at him and in those two seconds she sees how utterly afraid her son is of her answer. He looks at her with big green eyes just like his father and it reminds her of all the times Neal would ask the same question. Of course it was harder to forgive him.

She tousles his hair before giving him a big smile. "Of course not, kid. You know I can't stay mad at you."

He presses his lips together and studies her for a moment. Emma supposes she passes his evaluation because he grins back at her and pushes her hand away.

"Here," she says when he gets out of the car. She hands him his lunch money. He grabs it and runs to the school's entrance. Emma waits, watching as he temporarily becomes the school's responsibility.

* * *

Lieutenant Davis doesn't notice her as she tiptoes into the bullpen trying not to spill her coffee on herself this time but also trying to remain quiet enough to sneak past the door without being noticed.

She's just at her desk when, "Swan!" Lieutenant Davis calls from his office in a voice that doesn't sound like he started his day off any better than her.

She only spills the coffee a little bit on her shirt but enough to annoy her. Emma grabs a napkin from one of the drawers in her desk. She's wiping the stain away with only her spit and no soap as she enters the small office once again on a Monday and feeling like she's in trouble.

"You just get in?" he asks casually, already knowing the answer.

She nods.

"Hmm," he thinks for a moment. "I have an assignment for you."

Emma groans and takes a seat across from him at his desk. She only gets these assignments when she's late or she hasn't turned a report in on time or he just feels like punishing her.

"Don't complain to me, Swan. You're a great cop. It's everything else that needs some work." He presses the button on his desk phone. "Have them bring her in."

"Bring who in?"

"Regina Mills. Storybrooke's Chief Administrative Officer. Wife of Mayor Leo White."

An eyebrow arches questioningly. "Storybrooke?"

He shrugs. "Some town in Maine. Anyways she claims her husband is abusive and has someone looking for her, though we've checked and there are no filed reports against him."

"DVU couldn't handle it?"

Davis shakes his head in the negative and hands her a file. "Unfortunately, there's not enough to go on. She does have some scars on her body that looks like she was abused as a child. And some assault wounds on her abdomen that are barely a week old. Which is the only reason we're taking her claims seriously."

Emma doesn't even bother to open the folder. "What am I supposed to do? I'm better with undercover work, Davis. You of all people know that."

"You are." He agrees as he laces his fingers together in an ark and rests his chin on them, leaning towards her over the desk.

He continues patiently. "But, I think a case like this is enough to show you working in Vice is a privilege. I let you come and go as you please as long as you solve enough cases but you forget your paperwork, Swan. You like the fun part of the job and refuse to acknowledge the responsibilities unless I'm threatening you with desk duty. Now Simmons offered to take the case but I decided he's not as sharp as you in the field. You notice things other cops don't when you're on the street. So you're going to take Ms. Mills in and you're going to figure out who is following her. Think you can manage the responsibility of keeping one person safe?"

Emma slouches in her seat. "I don't really want to." She mumbles. "But I guess I don't really have a choice now do I?"

He shrugs impassively. "No not really. She's down with DVU right now. I wanted to give you time to give all your open cases away. Irvin and Jones want Hyde Park." Emma groans in frustration and he ignores it effortlessly.

"If someone is following her, it's best they don't know you're a cop. We want them to think you're an old friend from college or something so keep your gun and badge hidden."

His strict manner abridges to sympathy. "Emma, I know you don't want this case but I wouldn't have given it to you if I didn't think you were the best for it and needed it. This case will help your career."

She looks at him from beneath her lashes. "Really? Cause it feels like you're telling me if I don't take this case seriously I might not have a career."

He shrugs. "If the shoe fits. Get acquainted with her file and pick her up from downstairs in thirty minutes. We'll have two undercover uniforms at your apartment building by noon."

"Yeah, yeah." She mutters, dragging herself out of the office sullenly. At her desk, Emma opens her left top drawer and takes out all of her ongoing cases to hand out as freaking Christmas presents to lazy, undeserving Detectives that didn't get them in the first place because they weren't as skillful as her.

"Detectives," she walks to Irving and Jones adjoining desks. They're two men that despite being different races and ages have somehow been partners long enough to act like each other. Both wearing suits that hang loosely from their awkwardly tall bodies.

Irving has a white beard since he's the oldest and Jones' is beard is greying rapidly even though he's just in his late thirties. Stress of the job, Emma always assumed.

They both acknowledge her with a grunt as they type erratically at their keyboards.

"Uhm," she rubs the back of her neck, unwilling to give her case away. "Davis told me you're interested in the Hyde case?"

They look at each other first then turn their attention to her in full swing. "You're actually giving it to us?" Peter Irving asks excitedly.

Emma shrugs. "Don't really have a choice." She drops the file on their desk and presses her fingertips to it. "Just…treat it nice, alright? Hyde Park is my baby and I was close to making all the arrests I needed. The other homeless people are going to notice I'm not there so tell them I sent you there from a shelter before getting my act together."

Jones takes it from beneath her hand carefully. "We're not going to screw it up."

"Yeah, sure." She rolls her eyes knowing that's exactly what they're going to do. But that'll give Davis an excuse to assign her back the case. She continues passing out her files to different detectives until she's empty handed sitting back at her desk feeling like she's just given away all of her favorite toys.

Emma thrums her fingers against the wood as she contemplates Regina's file. If Davis says they're taking it seriously then she should too, she decides. It is her job, after all. The whole protect and serve crap. But God does she just want to go back undercover.

It's not that she doesn't want to help this woman; it's just that Emma's not good with battered women. Or women in general for that matter. She's always just been good with being undercover because it's always been easy to be someone else.

Most of her undercover assignments involve her pretending to be the common criminal and considering she used to be one it's not like she's putting a lot of effort into it.

She feels uncomfortable having to protect a grown woman's life. She's never really had to protect someone other than her son. That unsettles her. And personally she doesn't really think she's adequate for the job. There are so many other Detectives way more appropriate for this kind of case than her.

The door to the Vice bullpen opens. "Right this way, Ms. Mills." She hears Davis' secretary tell Regina.

Emma adjusts her shirt and checks how bad the coffee stain is. It's not enough to bother any average person. But when Emma turns around she sees that Regina Mills isn't any average person.

Though it was last week and she wore large sunglasses that covered a large proportion of her face, the Detective recognizes her right away. "Oh you've got to be kidding me."

"This will not do." Regina says at the same time, gesturing to Emma.

Davis steps out of his office. "Is there a problem here?" he asks his Detective in the way he wants her to say no.

Emma glares momentarily before sobering. "No, sir."

"_I_ have a problem," Regina says in a manner that draws attention to her from the rest of the Detectives. "Am I to believe this woman is capable enough to protect me? She can't even hold a cup of coffee properly." She points to the stain.

Annoyance coloring her face, Emma steps closer to Regina. "Listen lady-,"

"Would you prefer someone else?" Davis interrupts her with a silencing look.

"Yes."

"Well, that can be arranged." He says patiently. "However, Detective Swan is our best. Anyone else we assign you will not perform as adequately. We only what's best for you, Ms. Mills and she's it."

She considers it with a scowl, giving the blonde an once-over. "Fine." She decides less than affably.

"Excellent." He nods stiffly with satisfaction. "Detective, why don't you go take Ms. Mills to get checked out of her hotel?"

The brunette looks confused and even a little concerned. "And just where will I be staying?"

He clasps his hands together, assembling some form of patience, and Emma gives him a 'I told you so' look. "I'm sure Detective Swan's apartment is very accommodating."

Regina looks between the two with aggravation. "I suppose I don't have a choice, now do I?"

"No you don't," Emma quips impatiently. "So listen, if someone is following you-,"

"If? I know what I saw Miss Swan."

"I'm not saying you don't, I'm just saying running away-,"

Again, Regina interrupts her with a look of umbrage before stepping face-to-face with the blonde. "It sounds like you're insinuating I'm just running from a bad divorce Miss Swan. I'll spare you the details because I'm sure every scar he has left on me and why and how has been reduced to a few sentences in that file about me. And you won't question why I left my husband. You won't doubt that he is a psychopath that sent someone after me. And maybe then, Miss Swan, you'll do your damn job."

Emma did get a glance at the file and she saw photos of intimate spots on Regina's skin that told a pretty obvious story. Her husband and probably one of her parents used her as something close to a damn punching bag.

So she nods, no longer wanting to take a swing at this woman but feeling shameful. She knows how abusive relationships go. She's been in one herself. Though for her it didn't last very long after he hit her. She had enough self-preservation to get the hell up and walk away but this woman obviously had her preservation torn from her like skin on bones at a younger age. "I'll do my best to protect you." She promises.

"I don't need your pity or your promises, Detective Swan." Regina says to her indignantly . "I need him put away for all he has done to me. For what he's currently doing to my town. Just do your job."

"Fine." She grabs the file at her desk quickly, wordlessly accepting the assignment finally. "Let's go," she says holding the door open for the other woman.

* * *

"Here's the thing," Emma says without taking her eyes from the road as Regina sits uncomfortably next to her in her yellow bug. Despite the fact that Emma's probably taller than her by a few inches, it's Regina that looks anxiously cramped in the passenger seat. "Whoever is following you-,"

"Graham." She informs her bitterly. Just thinking he would betray her for Leo infuriates her. "His name is Sheriff Graham Humbert."

"Right," Emma nods in accordance. "He's got to be reporting back to your husband, right?"

"I suppose so." The brunette agrees sighs abjectly. "Though, I don't quite understand it. Graham absolutely loathes my husband. He was never aware of what happened in our home but it was quite obvious to anyone that worked with us that my husband didn't exactly respect me. He never treated me poorly in public but Graham was more observant than the rest of our town. So I don't quite understand why he would agree to come after me."

"Well maybe your husband has a different story going around," Emma gives her a quick side-glance before returning her focus back to the road. Regina looks angry but she also looks wounded and betrayed and Emma gets the sense there was a friendship of some sort between her and Graham. "Maybe he's spinning the story differently and this guy thinks he's helping you out or something."

Regina shrugs, not quite convinced. Though entirely likely because Leo would never admit to the things he's done to her.

But she's not exactly sure which way the story could be told without someone raising enough questions to ask why she would leave town in the dead of the night and not even tell one person where she was going or why she was leaving.

Even though there at least two people that know exactly why she left.

The rest of the car ride goes on in silence until they reach a shack for a restaurant. A poorly lit sign illuminates the words 'Fiesta' and Regina looks at Emma with wide eyes.

"What in the world are we doing here?"

"Calm down," she rolls her eyes and pulls the keys out of the ignition. "We're just going to have a chat. This place is full of cops."

"Interesting," the brunette's jaw clicks angrily as she grinds her teeth. "Hide your operation in a place that looks like it should have been shut down years ago."

The sign hangs loosely from the building as they enter and Regina actually ducks to avoid it in fear that it might actually choose that moment to fall. "Well you don't see anyone really eating here do you?" Emma gestures around the restaurant.

It's true; it's decently busy however everyone seems to be deep in conversation instead of eating.

"Detective Swan," the male-model looking 'host' says with an overly friendly smile that makes Regina roll her eyes ardently annoyed. "What are you doing back here so fast?"

"A case," she shrugs nonchalantly, seemingly oblivious to his flirtatious smile. "The usual."

When they're seated, Emma asks for two coffees while Regina goes to the restroom. The Detective receives a didactic phone call from Davis and it ends quickly when Regina lowers herself into the booth.

The cold wine-red pleather itches her skin.

"That was my boss," Emma begins. "We have uniforms looking for any Maine license plates with drivers matching the description you gave. I didn't see anyone trailing us on our way here so I don't know how close Graham is to you right now. What I do know is that your husband has filed a missing persons on you. Somehow he's got enough juice for it to spread all through New England despite the fact he's the Mayor of a small little town no one's even heard of. You wanna explain that to me?"

Realization hits Regina hard and her head drops into her hands shamefully. "My mother." She explains.

"Your mother?"

"She has very high friends in very high places. I wouldn't be surprised she was behind this."

"Does she know?" the blonde asks almost secretively. "About the…" this is why she thinks herself ill-equipped for this case because she can't even say the damn word. "Does she know about what he-,"

"Yes."

Emma's eyes grow wide with surprise but then narrow in disgust that a mother could allow her daughter to stay in such a violent marriage. "And she's helping him find you." She states, absolutely abhorring this woman without having even met her.

"My mother is a very complex woman." She tries to defend. "She loves me-," but when Emma stops her, it's obvious she has no belief in her mother's love for her anymore either.

"The guy used you as a punching bag and she let him. And I have no doubt in my mind that _she_ conditioned you to allow the abuse for so long."

"It's very complicated." The brunette says quietly. "You wouldn't understand."

"_You_ don't understand, Regina. I don't think you've understood your mother for a very long time you just got used to it and stopped questioning why she treated you that way."

Her eyes narrow. "What would you know about my mother? She has done a lot for me."

"Sure, sure. She's done a lot of good things for you but are you forgetting all she has done _to_ you?"

"It's called Discipline Miss Swan."

Emma snorts. "You know what? You're right. I have no right to tell you about your mother. You wanna believe what she did to you was okay? Fine. Whatever helps you sleep better at night."

Regina purses her lips with growing annoyance for this woman. She obviously has no respect for anyone. "What _is_ your plan to help me, Miss Swan?"

"Pretty simple," Emma pours a few packets of sugar into her coffee. She uses her spoon to stir it and it clinks in the glass mug. "I'm going to let Leo find you."

* * *

**A/N**: I didn't forget about this fic no worries. I've just been trying to figure it out. Writing multiple SQ fics gets confusing because there's different characterization and development for each fic and I have to try to write everyone differently but the same. Anyways I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and let Emma explain in the next chapter before you jump to conclusions.

Also I may have changed the premise a little bit. I'll write a better description in the morning (the later morning considering it's 3am right now)

Thank you for your encouragement and being patient with me.


End file.
